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User blog:CuteButLooksLolita/Literary Concerns About the Wandering Son Wikia
Literary Concerns About the Wandering Son Wikia---by CuteButLooksLolita It is a very serious and sobering responsibility to create and edit a Fandom Wikia, even moreso when the Wikia has as a subject a topic that is controversial. The story of the manga and anime of Wandering Son is about the lives of several transgender children and teens, making this Wikia even more controversial. This is because transgender people in modern society, both Japanese, as well as American, are thought of as non-conformists, and therefore subject to discrimination and prejudicial actions. Given that fact, it is not surpirsing that some controversy may be found to be directed towards this Wikia for it's protrayal of the stories of such transgender teenagers. The purpose of this blog is now, and will continue to be, to address such issues that may arise from readers and editors who come to this Wikia, and decide to enter into a controversial dialog with the people here on this Wikia who strive to display this Wikia as the best possible reflection of the intent of the Author and Creator of the Wandering Son manga and anime, and who try to write and edit in such a way as to be a positive influence for transgender people everywhere. Recently, a noob and newbie editor came to this Wikia, read over and reviewed it, and declared the whole 'nine yards' to be a " trainwreck " in apparent desperate need of their wholesale deletion of the information therein, and massive reworking of the text of the wikia to reflect their personal concerns regarding transgender issues. I, as the Admin, B'crat, and Mod wish to address and explain the issues raised by this noob, and to further explain why this Wikia is written and constructed the way that it is. With this blog, and others, I will defend this Wikia against the allegations that were raised by this individual, as well as the many more allegations that are destined to come. Where possible, exact quotes will be used for reference, or lacking such, a phraphase will be used to source the concerns of this individual with respect to this Wikia. ( The comments of this individual are posted in quotes { " " }, whereas my comments are posted between arrows { >>> <<< } ) ________________________________________________ " my initial shock was at the fact that the characters are sorted into " male " and " female " and " transgender ", which is ... really disrespectful ... " >>> The practice of this Wikia of identifying the characters as male, female, or a transgender person is consistant with the intent of the Author of Wandering Son, Takako Shimura. It is reported that the following was the author's purpose in creating this manga story--- Shimura was originally going to write the story about a girl in high school who wants to be a boy, but she realized that a boy who wants to be a girl before entering into puberty would have a lot of worries related to growing up, and changed the story to fit this model. ( Source of quote---Wikiapedia, Wandering Son file ) ---Notice that the Author, Shimura, has used in her creation of the Wandering Son manga terms that describe the characters in her manga that are descriptive of the Gender Binary, that is, terms such as " boy " and " girl ". If that is the intent of the Author, then the use of Gender Binary terms to identify the perceived birth gender or the correct gender of one or more of the characters is definitely NOT 'disrespectful'. Using Gender Binary terms, as the Author did in the manga, as is used in the subtitled anime, and are used on this Wikia, is in line with the intent of the Author, and show actual respect for the wishes and intent of the Author. The Main Character is named Shuichi, and is a male-to-female transgender child and teen. The use of the terms " boy " and " girl " to describe Shuichi is not disrespectful, since Shuichi is either perceived as a boy, or is presenting as a girl. Shuichi IS NOT a non-binary person, and terms identifying Shuichi as supposedly non-binary, such as but not limited to---non-binary, gender queer, gender bender, third gender, no gender, and the like---are not in keeping with the actual intent of the Author. Therefore, transgender characters will be identified with the terms boy, girl, or transgender person in this Wikia, as a matter of respect for the Author, as well as the personalities, gender identities, and gender expression of the various characters in Wandering Son. Additional respect will be shown by use of Gender Neutral Pronouns, such as " They ", " Ze ", and " Hir " when referring to characters perceived birth gender.<<< ________________________________________________ " For name consistancy, the name of the Main Character must be spelled, " Shuuichi " ....." >>>This is an English language Wikia, so English written words, English spelling, and English sentence structure will be used throughout this Wikia, as the attempt is made to be part of the effort to translate the story from Japanese to English. The manga of Wandering Son uses the Japanese spelling of the Main Character's name as, " Shuuichi ", therefore, the section(s) of this Wikia that deal with the manga will use the Japanese spelling of their name. The English subtitled anime, both fan-subbed as well as the official commercial sub, plus the English Wikipedia file of Wandering Son, uses the English spelling of the Main Character's name as, "Shuichi", therefore the section(s) of this Wikia that deal with the anime episodes, as well as the main body of this Wikia and the Character Profiles, will primarily use the English spelling of their name. This shows acknowledgement of both languages spelling and use of names, with no disrespect to either. <<< ________________________________________________ " . . . . all of the pronouns have been changed to " They " and " Them " , since use of other pronouns is cis-sexist and transphobic . . . . " >>>Originally, the Wandering Son Wikia was written by the First Admin using male pronouns ( he, his, him ) to describe and identify Shuichi, who is a male-to-female transgender child and teen. That is obviously improper, since Shuichi was only preceived as a male at birth, but the story shows that their correct gender indentity is female. So it had become necessary to replace incorrect gendered pronouns with Gender Neutral Pronouns. The choice of " They " and " Them " as the only replacement pronouns is problematic, because the reader can not tell if the words " They " and " Them " are in the singular or plural tense. The only way to discern the correct tense of the 'they and them' is to understand and apply the context of the text, something that is not, many times, clear or discernable. The better use of Gender Neutral Pronouns are the use of " Ze " and " Hir ", but even then that is problematic, as those pronouns are not well known or well used at this time. The best solution seems to be to write and edit the information on this wikia in a way that does not use pronouns, or use of pronouns is kept to an absolute mininmum. Having a writer or editor blasting away with " They " and " Them ", really shooting up the place with those terms, is counterproductive. When pronouns must be used, a carefull choice of the available Gender Neutral Pronouns is recommended. To show how difficult it is to use " They " and " Them " as universal pronouns, try and understand the meaning of this paragraph. Shuichi is a male-to-female transgender teen, Yoshino is a female-to-male transgender teen, and Saori is a cis-female. " Shuichi is happy to be attending a party with Yoshino and Saori. They are happy, as is they, they and them are having a really good time. They are with them, and they are now cutting the cake. Shuichi wishes their sister was there, Yoshino wishes they are there, too. Saori is worried. They wonder is all of them have enough cake, as they sure eat a lot. But their fears are unfounded, as they brought muffins with themselves, and they have enough to go around for all of them. " Editing on this wikia has to be better that what is shown above, and the proper use of pronouns, but only where necessary, can go a long way to insure that good English grammer and word usage abound. <<< _______________________________________________ " ....along with some other language in the articles, gave me the impression that whoever was maintaining the wiki didn't know how to talk about trans people .... " " ...but I was still shocked at a lot of the language that I saw. " >>>It is not clear, or it is not stated, what the supposed deficiency of the language was, or the wording that was being used by TheFruitless, CuteButLooksLolita, or the other editors here that have contributed their time and expertise for the success of this wikia. Therefore, one would have to hazard a guess as to what the various objection(s) was, and why the noob changed the wording of certain sentences to a much different way of describing the subjects under consideration. By examples, I will try and show that the choice of words and descriptions were not deficent, and the replacement wording is the real literary problem to be addressed. EXAMPLE NO. 1 / ORIGINAL TEXT ) " Shuichi is described as cute by many of the other characters, and is able to easily appear as a girl when wearing ....a sailor suit, because of a feminine-looking face and physical build. " REVISED NEWBIE TEXT ) " is described as cute by many of the other characters, and are able to easily pass as a girl with their feminine features and physical build. " The better choice of text is the Original Text. By describing Shuichi as a girl ( remember, 'girl' is the term used by the Author, Shimura ) who is wearing a sailor suit, the implication is that Shuichi is dressed to reflect their correct gender identity, that is, of a teenage female. In the Revised Text, describing Shuuichi as able to " pass " as a girl, the implication is that Shuuchi is a male teen who is cross-dressing. The term " pass " is used by cross-dressed men who pretent to be female by donning female attire, and 'pass' is a term used to indicate how successful, or not, that they are in fooling people into believing that they are supposedly female. Shuichi IS NOT a male cross-dresser, hence the use of the Revised Text terms is innappropriate at best, and is blatantly transphobic at the worst, since it erases Shuichi's female gender identity and replaces it with male gender privilege. EXAMPLE NO. 2 / ORIGINAL TEXT ) " Shuichi wishes to be a pretty girl in public. " REVISED NEWBIE TEXT ) " Shuuichi shopping while presenting feminine. " Again, the Original Text gives the thought that Shuichi wants to be a teenage girl ( again, the term that Shimura uses in the manga ), because Shuichi's gender identity is that of a female. The Revised Text, once again, gives the impression that Shuuichi is a male cross-dresser, and 'presenting feminine' is but a sport for males to engage in, in order to " pass " as feminine by wearing feminine attire. Only through continuous editing and upgrading of the language can thoughs and descriptions of people, events, and actions be brought to the reader in the clearest and best terms. But revisions that step backwards are not helping in any regard, and should be the subject of review and adjustment where necessary. All editors should be aware of the literary tools at their disposal, and use such for the benefit of all. <<< ________________________________________________ " I'm editing the hourou musuko wiki b/c because it's mmmMMMmmm really cis-sexist. Wikia reeks of cis-sexual language, needing changed pronouns for non-cis characters to 'they', unintentional cis-sexism, nonbinary erasure, transphobia " >>>Certainly one is intitled to one's opinions, however 'off-the-wall' that they may seem. But opinions may or may not be true, accurate, or factual. For centuries, scientific minded people believed and voiced the opinion that the Earth was flat. The most educated minds believed that for centuries, whereas a common person, the one who wrote the Book of Psalms, described the Earth as 'circular, hanging upon nothingness' of outer space. Who got it right ? Scientific minds, or a commoner ? All kinds of opinions abound, including the above stated supposed status of this Wikia, but only through research and education, can people come to an accurate understand of what reality actually is, and live to write about it.<<< _______________________________________________ Category:Blog posts